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Tartan Troubles

For those of you who are old enough, you may remember Phyllis Diller, the comedienne who once said of her frazzled hairdo, “This isn’t hair, it’s nerve endings.” That’s how I feel right now. I am pulling my hair out because my main supplier of dress tartan, D. C. Dalgliesh, a company that I have always loved dealing with, has been making a few changes.

What they’ve done is to change some of the colors that are used in weaving the tartans. That’s fine, but I haven’t found out about the changes until I receive a kilt length in the mail, and then it’s too late. The first instance of this was with a piece of Dress Blue Ross about 3 or 4 years ago. It used to have a triple fuchsia stripe in the white area. Then a got a piece that had purple–oops! This may seem minor, but if a dancer already has socks made up with one color, and the tartan is something else, then they no longer match the way they should.

The next time I saw a significant change was last June, when I saw a piece of Dress Green Longniddry that had much lighter range of colors than my samples. Again, if I had hose or a jacket, they might not match the new tartan. The latest one was nearly a disaster–Dress Green Cunningham received a makeover to a new, lighter shade. Then a friend showed me the picture of her sample of Dress Traquair and what she got in the mail.

See what I mean?

My samples are about 2 years old, but they no longer seem to reflect the real colors that are being used. I have asked for new samples twice, but haven’t received anything. I will be emailing again to see what’s up.

So, if you see me at the games and my hair looks even thinner than usual, or it is standing up straight, this is why!